Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
17896175
TITLE
Sex differences in genetic variation in weight: a longitudinal study of body mass index in adolescent twins.
ABSTRACT
Genes that influence a phenotype earlier in life may differ from those influencing the same phenotype later, particularly during significant development periods such as puberty, when it is known that new genetic and environmental influences may become important. In the present study, body mass index (BMI) data were collected from 470 monozygotic twin pairs and 673 dizygotic twin pairs longitudinally at ages 12, 14 and 16, roughly straddling puberty. In order to examine whether there are qualitative and quantitative differences in genetic and environmental influences affecting BMI in males and females, during development, a general sex-limitation simplex model (which represents the longitudinal time series of the data) was fitted to the repeated measurements of BMI. The ADE simplex model provided the best fit to the adolescent data, with disparity in the magnitude of additive genetic influences between sexes, but no differences in the non-additive genetic (epistasis or dominance) or environmental influences. Results found may reflect many genetic and environmental influences during puberty, including the possible complex interaction between genes involved in the biological mechanism of weight regulation and the development of likely peer pressured activities such as severe exercise and diet regimes. Although, over 1,000 pairs of twins were used, this study still lacked the power to properly discriminate between additive and non-additive genetic variance.
DATE PUBLISHED
2007 Sep
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
received 2007/04/17
accepted 2007/07/26
aheadofprint 2007/09/25
pubmed 2007/09/27 09:00
medline 2008/01/19 09:00
entrez 2007/09/27 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Cornes BK Cornes Belinda K BK Genetic Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Post Office Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, Brisbane 4029, QLD, Australia. belleC@qimr.edu.au
Zhu G Zhu Gu G
Martin NG Martin Nicholas G NG
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 37
ISSUE: 5
TITLE: Behavior genetics
ISOABBREVIATION: Behav. Genet.
YEAR: 2007
MONTH: Sep
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Print
ISSN: 0001-8244
ISSNTYPE: Print
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Behav Genet
COUNTRY: United States
ISSNLINKING: 0001-8244
NLMUNIQUEID: 0251711
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Twin Study
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Adolescent
Body Height genetics
Body Mass Index genetics
Body Weight genetics
Child genetics
Female genetics
Genetic Variation genetics
Humans genetics
Longitudinal Studies genetics
Male genetics
Models, Genetic genetics
Puberty genetics
Sex Characteristics genetics
Twins, Dizygotic genetics
Twins, Monozygotic genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's